40+FAB Blog
Focus is one thing that is needed if we are to accomplish any task to it’s highest standard. It is a deliberate concentration on the one thing to be done at one time. Focus is one of the characteristics of highly successful people.
I heard about something called the law of focus, and some of the various forms of it are as follows:
“What you think about expands. When you focus on positive things you push your mind in a positive direction.”
“Your mind can think only one thought at a time. When you focus on a thought, it displaces all others from your mind.”
“The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind.”
“Whatever you focus on, you will see even more of. In addition, you will also be blinded from seeing other options and opportunities in their place.”
To prove the last law mentioned, psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris detailed in a 1999 study how people can focus so hard on something that they become blind to the unexpected, even when staring right at it.
Volunteers were asked to watch a 30-second video clip of people playing basketball. Three players wore white T-shirts, and another three wore black. Viewers were told to count the number of passes made by one team. Afterwards they were asked for the tally, and whether they had seen anything unusual. Astonishingly, only a very few put their hands up. These individuals had seen something that should have been blindingly obvious to everyone; halfway into the film, a man dressed as a gorilla walked on court and beat his chest at the camera. Everyone else was so focused on trying to count the passes that they completely missed this surreal moment. (Watch the ‘Invisible Gorilla’ clip on YouTube to see the experiment).
Could you have missed something that posed a threat to your home, family, business, finances, etc., because, you were so focused on trying to get a certain area right that you lost sight of the big picture and inevitably allowed a saboture to hijack important parts of your set-up.
Focus is meant to be a blessing, but how we use it can determine if we are blessed or cursed by having it.